Small Troubles
by High Crystal Guardian
Summary: (Co-authoressed by WSJ and HCG) Some "higher powers" have decided to cause some havoc and have turned 4 Negative Realm agents into Chibis. Kaze refuses to "give in" to the plot, but that means he's in for some trouble...
1. It Begins

Small Troubles

Co-authoressed by:

High Crystal Guardian

and

Wingleader Sora Jade

WSJ: *snicker* Mwaha. KAZE ME LOVE! *glomp*

Kaze: v_v;

HCG: Aww, Kaze, you have a fan! Isn't that what you said you wanted?

Kaze: I didn't quite mean it like this...*grimace*

HCG: Whatever. Onto the fic!

Disclaimer: We don't own YGO. The Negative Realm and most of its occupants belong to HCG. However, Damon and Horus are WSJ's from her fic "The Falcon".

Note: If Kawari, Damon, Saguru, and Kaeru seem a bit OOC, remember that they're little kids. ^^ Little kids are always argumentative brats. :p

()()()()()

Our story begins in a dark room, where one small computer screen offers the only light. Someone is snoring, and we realize that it is Kaze. It seems that the leader of the Opposition had tried to stay up and work all night again, for the fourth time this week. It was now 3AM and the Blue Eyes had fallen asleep at his desk with his head on his laptop keyboard. The laptop was now typing and endless line of 'Z's from where Kaze's head rested on it. Rather appropriate, really.

Two doors down the hall, in what could possibly be termed the Opposition headquarters' recreation room, Kawari and Kaeru were asleep on the couch, leaning up against each other. Damon was on the floor, leaning back against the couch and snoring almost as loud as Kaze. Saguru was curled up in a ball with his head pillowed on Kawari's feet, his thumb in his mouth for an unknown reason. The four agents had been watching a movie of some sort, and had all fallen asleep. The TV had since changed into the typical staticy snow storm, and cast eerie light on their faces.

In the shadows in the corner, two beings looked at each other and slowly began to smile. If there had been more light, you might have seen that both were very decidedly female, although one was slightly taller then the other. One was holding an ink pen and yellow legal pad in her hands in what didn't seem to be a casual way.

But that isn't important. What is important is that these two beings looked at the Opposition agents for a moment and snickered. The taller one, holding the notepad, wrote something down and then they vanished. But after they'd left, something had Changed...

~*~

Something in the darkness near Kaze's comatose body moved. A very small figure stepped into the flickering circle of light cast by the laptop screen.

"Kaze?" the figure asked, tugging lightly on Kaze's blue coat. The Blue Eyes' only response was another snore. "Kaze!" the little person said louder, stepping closer to Kaze. The meager light revealed it to be a little boy of no older then four years. The glow of the laptop glinted from one bright green eye.

Seeing still no response, the little boy screwed up his face and screamed "KAZE!!!"

Kaze's eyes snapped open and he rolled off his chair, landing in an ungraceful heap on the floor. The little boy couldn't help but giggle at the wild look in Kaze's eyes or the fact that there were little red squares all over his face from where it had been smushed into the keyboard. Kaze froze at the sound of the giggle, not being able to see who had made it. "Who's there?"

He felt another tug on his coat and jerked around to look at one green eye and a massive scar that was familiar, but smaller then the last time he'd seen it. "What the... hell?" Getting back to his feet, Kaze flipped on the light switch, illuminating the whole of his bedroom. It was really rather messy, with discarded clothes on the floor and a gun disassembled and in the process of being cleaned spread out across his bed, which hadn't been slept in in about two weeks.

Turning, Kaze stared down at the little one-eyed, black-haired falconer who was hugging his leg. "Damon?"

"Kaze," the former 17-year-old wailed, hugging Kaze's leg a bit tighter. "Sa'gu was teasin' Ka'wi but then Ka'wi started cryin' so Kay'u hit Sa'gu and now Sa'gu's cryin' too and Kay'u said to come get you!"

"..." Kaze frowned a little as he tried to make sense of things. This... kid was Damon, there wasn't any doubt of it. He could tell. Whether it was some memory of Seth's or just his own intuition he didn't know, but this kid definitely wasn't an imposter. But what was he talking about? Sa'gu, Ka'wi, and Kay'u? Names of some sort?

In a daze, Kaze let himself be led by the hand by a chibi version of one of his most trusted agents. Jeez, what a dream. Grimly Kaze promised himself no more all-nighters. Well, he amended, at least no more then three a week.

Damon led Kaze toward the lounge, and even before they got there Kaze could tell that _something_ was going on. He could hear what sounded like a little kid crying. Involuntarily he tensed up, his mind flashing automatically back to when Mokuba was a kid...

Kaze shook his head sharply to clear it as Damon stood on tip-toe to reach the button that would open the door. The door slid back on silent tracks, and Kaze stared in semi-horror at the scene before him.

"Sa'gu, Kay'u, and Ka'wi..." the Blue Eyes muttered, groaning slightly. "Oh terrific..."

Kawari, who looked to be the youngest of the four at about three years, was curled up in the corner of the room and crying. A five-year-old Kaeru was crouched down next to him, petting his hair and trying to comfort him. Saguru, who looked about four, was standing in the opposite corner with his arms crossed, sniffling and glaring at Kaeru. The little blond was the first to see Kaze.

"Kaze!" He squealed, running over and almost knocking Kaze over with his flying-tackle-hug. "Kaze, teww Kay'u to be nice to me!"

"I dun' have to!" Kaeru said, sticking out his tongue at the blond. "He was bein' mean to Kar'wi." Being a little older, Kaeru was able to pronounce things _slightly_ better then the other two.

"Yeah," Kawari said with a sniffle, peeking out from behind Kaeru and speaking up for the first time. "He tol' me to put away Gin Hewwi,"

"He coul' poke my eye out!" Saguru protested, still glomped firmly onto Kaze. "I dun' wanna end up like Damo'."

Damon, who was hanging off Kaze's _other_ leg, sniffled a little. "Sa'gu, that's mean!"

"Gaah..." Kaze felt his bad leg starting to go weak from all the glomping on, so he hobbled over to

the couch and plopped down, staring in disbelief at the four chibis in front of him. "How the hell did this happen?"

Interestingly, it was Kawari who spoke up. Still sniffling just a little, he came out from behind Kaeru, dragging Gin Hebi behind him. Kaze sweatdropped a little as he saw that the dirk was now almost longer then its master. "We dunno," Kawari said, shaking his hair out of his eyes impatiently. "We was jus' sweepin', and den we woke up, and we like dis!" He looked up at Kaze with round eyes. "Wha' if it's da Han' of Swadow?"

Kaze felt a shiver go up his spine as he realized that this was no dream, and that his four best agents were now children. Young children at that. Good grief, now what?!

"Dun' wowwy Kar'wi," Kaeru said, patting his hikari on the shoulder. "Kaze wiww find some way to fix it!"

Damon and Saguru nodded solemnly, and Kawari cheered up a little. Suddenly Saguru looked uncomfortable and looked up at Kaze with big, round doe's eyes that reminded Kaze a little bit of Serenity. "Kaze?"

"Yes?" Kaze asked tiredly. He could already feel a migraine coming on, and Saguru's next words were not going to help it any.

"I gotta go potty..."

()()()()()

WSJ: *evil laughter*

Kaze: *sweatdrop* The hell?

HCG: *gleefully* Oh, it's gonna be so fun to torture you, Kaze...*imitates WSJ's evil laughter*

Kaze: ¬_¬;; Oh, goody...

God bless minna-san!


	2. Why?

  
Small Troubles  
  
co-authoressed by:  
  
High Crystal Guardian  
  
and   
  
Wingleader Sora Jade  
  
HCG: ^_^ Whee! Onto chapter 2! More torture for our favorite Blue Eyes!  
  
Kaze: *sweatdrop* Why do you two insist on torturing me so?  
  
WSJ: *glomps Kaze* ^o^ Because it's fuuuuuuun and we looooove you!  
  
HCG: *sweatdrop* Don't look at me Kaze, she only gets this mushy around you...  
  
Kaze: v_v; Somebody help me...   
  
Disclaimer: We do not claim ownership of Yu-Gi-Oh! related characters and themes. The Negative Realm characters belong to High Crystal Guardian; however, Damon and Horus belong to Wingleader Sora Jade.  
  
()()()()()  
  
Kaze blinked with rather dull eyes at the 4-year-old former second to the Opposition, silently praying that he had not heard what he had just heard. "Come again?"  
  
Saguru's eyes had gone wider and looked a little more pleading. "I gotta go potty!"  
  
The Blue Eyes felt his spirits plummet; interestingly enough, they took the fall at the same time that his headache kicked in with full force. Oh goody. The day hadn't even started yet and already he was worn out and in a full-fledged headache.  
  
"Ah," the Negative Seto muttered, more to fill up space than anything else, what with four chibis staring up at him in varying degrees of innocent wide eyes. "Well...er..."  
  
"I gotta go _now,_" Saguru said again; these words were accompanied by what most parents had soon come to dub 'the potty dance,' which consisted of the chibi hopping back and forth from one leg to another and looking increasingly uncomfortable.  
  
"Right," Kaze said, sighing, and knowing there was no getting around the fact. "Come with me, okay Saguru? And the rest of you," he added, staring at Kaeru, Kawari, and Damon with a stern look, "I want you to stay here, okay? And no fighting." This was directed more towards five year old Kaeru than either of the others.  
  
Turning, Kaze headed for the door, keeping an eye on the small blonde, who quickly skipped after him to keep up. The 4 year old grasped hold of the long tail of Kaze's trench coat so that he wouldn't get separated from his current new guardian--not that there was much for him to get separated with in the first place--although Kaze didn't mind. It actually helped him keep track of the little chibi better, when he could feel the tug at his coat.   
  
They walked a few doors down the hallway, until they reached one of the restrooms installed in the Opposition. Grimacing, Kaze pushed open the door and motioned for the chibi to go in before him, which Saguru did (with much banging around, crashing into doors and legs, and getting tangled in Kaze's trench coat). The little blonde skipped forward to one of the stalls, looking distinctly relieved. It was at this point that the Blue Eyes wondered what on earth he should do next. How on earth did he know if Saguru was potty-trained or not?  
  
"Er...Saguru?" Kaze said hesitantly, taking a few steps forward. "Do you need my help or anything?"  
  
"_No,_" the little blonde huffed, looking slightly annoyed. "I kin do it mysewf." This said, he strutted into one of the stalls to...well....do his business. "...Kaze?"  
  
"Yes?" Kaze asked, peeking around the partision between the stall and the area where the sinks were. He noticed the problem immediately and sweatdropped. Little Saguru's head barely came above the edge of the "potty". He just wasn't tall enough.   
  
Quickly, Kaze located the broom closet in the corner of the bathroom, filled mostly with spare paper towel rolls and toilet paper. Selecting an unopened box of the former he set it where Saguru would be able to stand on it and then politely turned away.   
  
He was rather relieved to know that Saguru, at age 4, was potty trained, although the entire experience wasn't perfect. Kaze had decided to save his second's dignity by turning in the opposite direction until the blonde was finished.   
  
"You know, Saguru," the Blue Eyes muttered dryly, rubbing one of his temples to lessen that pounding headache, "You should be glad I'm not my True Self, or there would be one hell's load of blackmail in here."  
  
"What's 'bwack-maiwl?" Saguru asked curiously, still finishing up at the potty.  
  
"Never mind," Kaze muttered, exasperated.   
  
For another thing, the Blue Eyes had been forced the hard way to recall that little kids were not the cleanest of potty-goers in the beginning of their training. While Saguru washed his hands up after he had finished (an act that had to be enforced by Kaze, and eventually happened when the Opposition leader lifted his second onto the sink counter and refused to let him down until he was done) the Negative Kaiba had had to do a bit of cleaning up with some of the paper towels from the dispenser.   
  
Needless to say, he was altogether pleased when the entire business was done with.  
  
Sighing in exasperation, Kaze led his former second back to the recreation room, where he had left the three other chibis. He strained his ears for sounds of crying, whining, or other chaotic noises, but he heard none (at least, nothing too loud) and so entered without too much worry.  
  
The three remaining former agents had not wrecked _too _much havoc while he had left, although they did seem to be getting hyper in a way that only little kids could get. Kaeru was chasing Damon around the room in what seemed to be a game of tag, knocking over various things in the room (though there was nothing of any particularly high expense in there) while Kawari was poking one of the pillows on the couch with _Gin Hebi_ and was watching intently as the fuzz came out.  
  
Kaze frowned at _Gin Hebi _slightly as he felt Saguru leave his side to join in the rowdy game of tag. He hadn't thought about the blade originally, when he'd first seen Kawari the 3 year old toting it around--he'd been too shocked about the fact that his best agents were kids--but the more he thought about it, now, he realized that he probably shouldn't let the little chibi have such a sharp, dangerous weapon.   
  
Okay, so he'd have to confiscate it--for now, anyway.  
  
Hoh boy. This was gonna be hard.  
  
Striding over to the little white-haired child on the couch, Kaze bent down to eye-level with his former Council member and said slowly, "Kawari?"  
  
"Hiya Kaze!" the little hikari said cheerfully, staring at him with wide--_really _wide--innocent brown eyes. "Lookit! _Gin Hewwi_'s all shiny and coowl!" He demonstrated by poking the pillow again.   
  
"Er...yeah, about _Gin Hebi,_" Kaze muttered. "I don't think you should be playing with it right now."  
  
Kawari's eyes, if possible, widened even further, this time in surprise. "_Why?_"  
  
"Well," Kaze explained patiently, "I really don't think a three year old--"  
  
"Three and a _half,_" Kawari interrupted stubbornly.   
  
"A three and a _half_ year old," Kaze amended, "should be playing with a blade almost as big as he is."  
  
"Why?" Kawari asked again, still looking rather stubborn. Damon, Saguru, and Kaeru had heard the conversation by now and had toddled over, looking interested.  
  
"Because," the Blue Eyes said again, still looking patient--if a little less than before--"it could hurt you."  
  
"Why?" Saguru asked, joining in on the game.  
  
"Because it's dangerous." Kaze said this a bit quicker, with a lot less patience.  
  
"Why?" Damon asked, also joining in on the game.  
  
"Because it's sharp and pointy, so it could cut you."  
  
"Why?" Kawari, Kaeru, Saguru, and Damon asked together, all at the same time.  
  
"Because that's just how it is!" Kaze hissed, now looking annoyed.  
  
The four chibis giggled at his expression, and as one asked--you guessed it--"Why?"  
  
"Okay," the Blue Eyes growled, "That's enough questions for now." He threw up his hands in exasperation. The four former agents giggled again, this time louder, quite pleased at having successfully annoyed their current guardian.  
  
The giggling came to an abrupt halt, however, as Kaze sighed, turned back to Kawari, and held out his hand, saying calmly, "Give me _Gin Hebi._"  
  
Kawari's eyes went wide once more with shock, and the other three chibis looked just as startled. Clutching the now overly-large dirk's hilt possessively, the 3 year old Negative Ryou shook his head and yelled loudly, "No! _Mine!_"  
  
Kaze sighed, tried to ignore his headache for the moment, and repeated sternly, "Kawari. Give me _Gin Hebi_."  
  
"No!"  
  
The Blue Eyes gave himself a mental reminder to yell at Kawari for his stubborn attitude later, once he'd been changed back. "Kawari, I'll say it one more time. Give me _Gin Hebi_, or I'll take it from you. I don't want you to hurt yourself."  
  
"_Mine!_" Kawari insisted firmly, clinging harder to the dirk hilt.  
  
Rolling his eyes in exasperation, Kaze acted upon his threat. He grasped hold of the dirk's hilt, calmly unwrapped Kawari's fingers from it (with no lack of surprise at how annoyingly determined the chibi was to keep his fingers _on _it) and removed _Gin Hebi _from it's owner's hands, lifting it high over the chibi's head so that he could not retrieve it.  
  
Kawari looked positively horrified. He stared up at Kaze with those extremely big chibi eyes, which quickly began to fill up with equally big tears by the second. It wasn't hard to guess what was coming next...  
  
_Oh, great,_ Kaze thought to himself moodily, as the former Council member burst into tears and loud, squeaky crying. _Perfect. Wonderful.  
  
_Sighing, the Blue Eyes exited the room quickly, running to his own room with _Gin Hebi _still in hand. He placed the dirk inside one of the many cabinets in his room--gently, so Kawari wouldn't murder him with it later for nicking it or something--and then locked it, ensuring that no chibi would be getting in to the weapon any time soon. This finished, he returned at a quick pace back to the recreation room, wanting to get back to his four new charges.  
  
When he re-entered the room, Kawari was (unbelievably) still crying, and Saguru and Damon were huddled in the corner as far away from the 3 year old as they could manage, hands over their ears. Kaeru was trying, once again, to calm down his hikari, although when he saw that Kaze had returned, he sent the Opposition leader several chibi glares, complete with pouty lip and eyes as narrowed as a 5 year old could possibly make them.   
  
The Blue Eyes noticed the glares, and asked in a partly irritated, partly exasperated manner, "What are you so mad about, Kaeru?"  
  
The little spirit 'hmphed' loudly, decided to wait a few moments before honoring Kaze with an answer, and then proclaimed simply, "Youse a meanie-head."  
  
Kaze raised an eyebrow at this. "I am, am I? How so?"  
  
Kaeru 'hmphed' again. "Youse was mean to Kar'wi. You tooked away _Gin Hewwi._ 'Dat's why."  
  
Damon, from over in the corner, gave a little gasp of surprise and widened his one remaining eye at Kaeru. "'Dat was even meaner, Kay'u! Youse was mean back to Kaze!"  
  
Kaeru stuck his tongue out at Damon, then at Kaze for good measure, before backing away and going back to Kawari, trying to make the little hikari calm down. After several minutes, the crying reduced to sniffling, which in return gave way to silence.   
  
Kaze plopped down onto the couch in the room and closed his eyes momentarily, feeling very grateful for the few minutes of quiet that he had received. Irritably he rubbed his temples to try and keep that blasted headache at bay, although it didn't really help much. He didn't get much time to himself, however--within the span of only a few minutes, he felt somebody crawl up onto the couch, and from there, his lap. Cracking one eye open, he found Damon sitting cheerfully on his lap, staring up at him with one big, brilliant green eye.  
  
"Whatsa matta, Kaze?" the little falconer asked, grinning widely.  
  
"Nothing much, Damon," the Blue Eyes replied, sighing. "It's just that I'm not used to this whole experience, so it's rather hard to get used to."  
  
The 4 year old nodded his head vigorously in agreement, still smiling widely. "Yeah, its funny! But yous is smart, yous can fix everyting back, wight?" He stared up at his current guardian with completely trusting chibi eyes.  
  
"I'll try, Damon," Kaze replied, nodding down at the child in his lap.   
  
The conversation was brought to as Kaeru toddled up to them, Kawari bouncing only a few steps behind. The 5 year old spirit seemed to have forgiven Kaze for being a "meanie-head," and appeared to be on speaking terms with the Blue Eyes now, for he exclaimed loudly, "I'm hungry, Kaze."  
  
"Me too," Kawari added, staring up at the Opposition leader from his point next to Kaeru.   
  
"'n me," Saguru said, skipping up to them and putting in his own two cents. His stomach growled loudly in agreement with him.  
  
Kaze blinked momentarily, then stared down at the final chibi in his lap. "Are you hungry too, Damon?" The answer was another vigorous nod and a wide, pleading eye that said all too plainly, 'can I have some food?'  
  
Glancing momentarily out the window, the Negative Seto was a little surprised to discover that the sun had already begun to rise, so he guessed it was around six-thirty or so, give or take a few minutes. He grimaced slightly at the time judgement; only three or four hours or so, he had fallen asleep in a relatively normal life, and how here he was suddenly forced to take care of four of his former agents, now kids.  
  
He concluded rather sensibly that his life was extremely odd.  
  
Something had been niggling at the back of his mind, and with slight horror Kaze suddenly realized what it was. They weren't the only five people in the complex. How was he going to explain four chibis to the rest of his Council, let alone the many other grunt men around the base? Worse, what if anyone else, say Malik or Pegasus, or even Yami, had become children as well? Kaze shuddered a little and decided he'd cross that bridge when he came to it.   
  
"Okay," he said wearily, removing Damon from his lap so that he could stand up (whereupon the little falconer latched himself to one of Kaze's legs), "let's get you guys some breakfast, if you're as hungry as you claim."  
  
The former Opposition agents grinned up at Kaze with wide, innocent, mischievous eyes, and the Blue Eyes suddenly felt that there was going to be a lot of trouble in a very short span of time.  
  
()()()()()  
  
HCG: Aaah....and so concludes the torture for Kaze, and the entertainment for the rest of us. XD.  
  
WSJ: *wide grin* For now.   
  
Kaze: *sweatdrop* I need aspirin...  
  
WSJ: *hides a bottle of Advil behind her back* What aspirin?  
  
  
  
Review!  
  
WSJ: *pops up from behind Kaze, where she had been again glomping him* God bless minna-san! 


	3. In Which Pegsy Joins the Fun

Small Troubles 

by HCG & WSJ 

WSJ: *snickers* Oh how the fun abounds!! 

Kaze: _Fun?!_ This is _torture, _not _fun!_

HCG: ^_^ That, my friend, is the point. Fun for us...torture for you.

Kaze: ¬_¬;; How kind the both of you are.

Disclaimer: No own. No claim to own. ^^ Oh wait, we do own! :p *dances* Just not ALL of it... *pouts* 

 ()()()()() 

Kaze quickly discovered that Saguru had already hit on the quickest and easiest mode of chibi transportation. Lining the chibis up behind him like the fan of a peacock's tail Kaze offered them each a portion of his coat to hold on to. Giggling amongst themselves the four little boys each grabbed a bit, and Kaze set off for the large and well-stocked kitchens of the base, praying quietly that they met no one on their way. 

Amazingly his prayers were answered (although that brought up the question of by whom) and the quintet made it to the kitchens with only minor incident. That minor incident happened just as they entered the kitchens, when Damon stopped dead in his tracks. Of course, the other four kept walking, and so the inevitable happened. 

Kawari, Kaeru, and Saguru each dropped their handfuls of trench coat and pointed at Damon in unison with big-eyed, 'not me!' expressions. "He did it!" 

Kaze winced slightly as he twisted around to examine the long tear up the back of his coat. He stifled a sigh as he saw Damon's eye widen. "Sowwey, sowwey!" the little falconer burbled, half-hiding behind Saguru. "Dun' make me pay fow it! I be good, I pwomise!" 

Kaze had to chuckle a little in appreciation of the memory. Back when Damon had first joined the Opposition, considerably later then most of Yugi's other friends, Kaeru had been attempting to instruct the falconer on how to use a sniper rifle. Of course, Damon was complaining that he didn't like guns and didn't use them anyway, and almost as if to prove his point his rifle had misfired, sending a bullet just inches past Kaze's legs and ripping a gaping hole in his coat. Kaze had made Damon pay for the expensive garment, and had made sure never to be around the black-haired agent when he had to use a gun. 

Frowning, the memory brought another thought to mind. Just how much did his agents, now little agents, remember? Apparently Damon remembered his "basic training", but Saguru hadn't seemed to understand what blackmail was, a concept all Opposition agents easily knew. Kawari had seemed to remember how to use Gin Hebi, but then again the dirk was now almost twice as long as his arm and the little hikari had to use both hands to lift it. Shaking his head slightly, Kaze pushed these thoughts away. 

"Don't worry Damon," he muttered, dropping his torn coat tail with another surpressed sigh, "Why did you stop so suddenly?" 

"Howus!" Damon said, his green eye widening again in remembrance. "She's gonna be hungwey!" 

Kaze stifled a moan and reminded himself to scour the kitchen cabinets for headache-killer once he had a free moment. Wonderful, the four year old wanted to go feed his pet bird. Peachy. "After breakfast Damon," he said wearily. "I'm sure she can wait until then." Perhaps if he stalled, Damon would forget, and Kaze could send someone else to see to the falcon later. 

Reluctantly Damon nodded, and the five entered the kitchen. Due to the fact that agents tended to eat at any and all hours, there was almost never a live cook on duty. Instead, there was a whole row of robots to dispense food. They _did_ have AI, but, most importantly, they never asked awkward questions. Although he was the one that designed and built them, Kaze privately thought of them as vending machines on steroids. 

Those aforementioned robots took up almost all of one wall. The space in the middle was taken up by round tables that seated about seven apiece. Thankfully, there was no one there now. 

Scrounging several old phone books out of a drawer in the cabinets that lined the wall opposite the robots, Kaze helped the chibis into their improvised booster seats at the table nearest the center. He figured that if he set them next to the robots, the cabinets or the door they'd find _some_ way to make mischief. Once they were all settled Kaze headed for the food bank. 

"Coffee please..." he ordered wearily. "Extra black. Make it a double." 

"Liquid caffeine, coming up." the robot chimed. 

Kaze sighed yet again (he seemed to be doing a lot of it lately!). While his robots _didn't_ ask awkward questions, they _did_ tend to be rather sarcastic. 

"Pegsy!" 

Kaze groaned and banged his head against the wall. This was _not_ happening. Did he even want to turn around? Eventually he did, and was rather relieved to see a very well, very adult thirty((?)) year old Pegasus standing in the doorway and blinking at the chibis in not-quite-awake confusion. After a moment he shuffled toward Kaze, who backed out of the way. With his back now to the children, Pegasus picked up the coffee that had just appeared in the robot's pick-up slot and slugged it down straight (Much to the Blue Eyes' disappointment). After a moment his brain cells began to reconnect, and he sighed, wiping his mouth off on the sleeve of his dark blue bathrobe. (Kaze could see the ends off his Funny Bunny pajama bottoms sticking out underneath, and he was wearing slippers with ducky heads on the toes, but that was another matter.) 

"Ahhhh..." the silver haired millionaire said. Absently setting the empty cup down on the edge of a nearby table. "Much better. For a moment I thought I saw..." he trailed off as he turned around and noticed what he had indeed "saw". "Oh my god..." 

"That's what _I_ said." Kaze snorted, crossing his arms over his chest. "What do you suggest we do about it?!" The truth was Kaze had almost been _hoping_ to be seen by someone, because he needed advice, and badly, before he lost his mind. 

"Now Kaze-boy," Pegasus said, adopting his usual nickname for the Blue Eyes. "Just stay calm." 

"Stay calm?!" Kaze asked, as his fragile hold on reality finally snapped. "Stay _clam_!?! My four, possibly more, best agents are _children_, probably made that way by the Hand of Shadow or Yami or both, and you expect me to stay calm?!!?" 

"Yes," Pegasus said, remarkably calm himself. It was possible that he was not _quite _awake yet, so the calm tone may not have been from self control so much as from a cloudy, still-sleeping head. "Because you are upsetting them, and the ones you aren't upsetting are upsetting other things." 

It was so. Damon and Kawari were staring up at the fuming Kaze with wide eyes and (in the case of Kawari) a trembling lower lip. The other two were monkey climbing over the robots, which they apparently _did_ remember how to work. "Pancakes!" Saguru chirped. "An' sywwup!" 

"An' strawbewwies!" Kaeru added, nodding vehemently. 

Kaze groaned and went back to banging his head against the wall. Rolling his eye and deciding to let his "fearless leader" have his bout of insanity, Pegasus crouched down next to the two tearful ones. "You two okay? Kaze doesn't mean it, he's just stressed." 

"Like hell..." he heard a certain CEO mutter from behind him, but rolled his eye again and ignored it. 

Snuffling slightly, Damon just leaned into Pegasus and wrapped his chubby arms around the American's neck. Kawari sniffled, but stayed back a couple steps. "...Who you?" 

Pegasus nearly face-faulted. "My name is Pegasus. Don't you remember Kawari? Or at least, I assume that's you Kawari, since you have the Millenium Ring, which I notice has shrunk somewhat." 

Kaze spun around. "_What?_" 

Pegasus shrugged as best he could with Damon in his arms and gestured at the small swordsman. "See for yourself. You know how heavy the Ring is normally, being solid gold. A chibi would be bent in half trying to carry it around his neck. Apparently, either the Ring sensed this and shrunk for Kawari's convenience, or something else has made it small enough for Kawari to bear. Don't worry," he said, anticipating Kaze's next question. "I can sense no decrease at all in its power, just in its size. Hmm..." Pegasus looked suddenly thoughtful. "I wonder..." 

After a moment of contemplation, the millionaire shrugged and disentangled Damon's hands from his hair, pushing the little falconer toward Kaze. "Kaeru, come here a moment please." 

The little yami skipped over to stand in front of Pegasus, maple syrup dripping down the front of his shirt. "Yeth?" 

"Swallow please." Pegasus commanded, and waited until Kaeru had done so. "Now, listen to me. Can you retreat into your soulroom Kaeru? Maybe if you go back into the Ring and come out again you'll get snapped back to your proper age." 

Behind him Kaze was nodding. "Worth a try, at least." 

Kaeru's eyes lit up, and he scrunched up his face as if concentrating on something. After several moments he blinked and looked plaintively up at the two adults. Pegasus and Kaze exchanged glances and stealed themselves for the worst. If something was blocking the power of the Millenium Ring... 

Kaeru looked down at his feet for several moments before he spoke, and his comment, when he did speak, sent both adults to the floor in a duo face-fault. 

"...I forget. How do I do it?" 

()()()()() 

WSJ: XD And so the torture continues, pulling Pegasus into its wake... 

Kaze: _;; You two are positively evil...

HCG: Hey, at least you're not in it alone ^_^

Kaze: True...*sigh* 


	4. Horus

Small Troubles

by HCG and WSJ

HCG: ^^ Bwahahaha, and now the _fourth _chapter begins! And what fun it shall be!

Kaze: *whine* Can't you two just be nice to me in _one _chapter, at least?!

Disclaimer: We don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, unfortunately for the both of us (what we wouldn't give to have it!) But the Negative Realm and all related characters and ideas belong to HCG, while Damon and Horus belong to WSJ. ^~

()()()()()

Kaze pulled himself to his feet from his face-fault and sighed in exasperation, dusting off his long, flame-adorned trench coat and staring down at Kaeru. Things just could not get worse...well, okay, maybe they could, but he hoped to God they wouldn't. He was at the end of his rope even now.

"Well?" the little spirit asked again, staring up at the two now-much-taller agents in a mix of confusion and impatience. "How do I do it again?"

"Aaah....well..." Kaze sweatdropped slightly. Truth be told, he hadn't the faintest idea how one would go about returning to a Millennium Item--he had never been the spirit of an item before. He glanced over at Pegasus, hoping that maybe the other Millennium Item owner could shed some light on the subject.

Unfortunately, if he had _had _any hopes, they were shattered almost instantly. Pegasus shrugged, saying almost conversationally, "I have no idea how to do it either. The only person who _would _know is a spirit."

"_Wonderful,_" Kaze muttered sarcastically. "Just _wonderful. _This day could not get better." He sat down at the table where Kawari had since returned to (though maneuvering was a bit difficult due to the fact that Damon was still clinging to his leg). The little falconer scrambled up onto his lap almost instantly and sat there cheerfully, his worries over the angry Kaze long having disappeared. 

His option of banging his head against the table now taken away due to the chibi in his lap, Kaze instead placed his forehead in one of his hands and sighed. "Okay," he muttered, assessing the situation, "so we have no idea if the Ring's powers are cut off, Kaeru can't even get back to his soul room--which could have helped our situation--and we have no way for him to learn how." He fought the urge to swear loudly in front of the chibis and sighed again in exasperation.

"If I may make a suggestion?" Pegasus asked, raising is remaining eye's brow slightly. 

"Shoot," Kaze muttered. 

"First," the white haired man began, looking over Kaze's shoulder with slight amusement, "I would suggest getting Saguru off of those robots before he short-circuits any more."

"_What?!_" Kaze yelped, whirling in his seat so quick he nearly sent Damon flying--the boy cried out in surprise and clung to Kaze for all he was worth. Kaze didn't much care at the moment, however, because he was staring over at Saguru, who was in turn staring in interest at one of the twitching, malfunctioning robots. "_Saguru!_"

The little second-in-command of the Opposition gave a yelp of surprise and turned to face Kaze, chibi brown eyes wide in a 'caught in the act' look. "I didn't mean to!"

"I'm sure," Kaze muttered, exasperated, as he rubbed his temples in irritation.

"I didn't!" Saguru shot back, now pouting in that 'you'd better believe me' look. "It just started doin' dat after I askeded it for a whole bunch of stuffs!"

The Blue Eyes sighed. "All right, fine. Just come over here and sit next to Kawari, okay?" Saguru did as he was told, though he looked rather put out about it. Kaeru sat down on the other side of Kawari, while Damon scooted over from Kaze's lap to sit down next to Saguru. 

Once all the chibis were at the table, Kaze sighed, shook his head, and proceeded to get some more breakfast for the two that _hadn't _eaten yet, as Kaeru and Saguru appeared to be quite full ("They always were resourceful agents," Pegasus had pointed out in an attempt to be optimistic about the situation). 

As soon as the four once-agents were settled and Damon and Kawari had begun to dig into their own batch of pancakes, Kaze sighed and turned to Pegasus. "Now what? I'm assuming you had a plan in mind from the way you were talking earlier."

"Well, yes," the Duel Monsters creator said calmly, nodding. "Remember how I said that a spirit would know how to return to the Ring?"

"Yeees," Kaze muttered, eyeing Pegasus with a raised eyebrow--he was wondering where this was going. 

"Well," Pegasus continued, "all we need to do is get a spirit to remind Kaeru how to go back to his Item!"

"Right," Kaze said, rather sarcastically, "And where are we going to get one of _those?_ We don't _have _any other spirit members of the Opposition!"

"That's only partially correct, Kaze-boy," Pegasus said, sounding almost _cheerful_. "We have an ex-spirit in the base, don't we?" He grinned.

_Smiling should be made illegal in the Opposition,_ Kaze thought dryly, as he watched the optimistic white-haired man awaiting his answer. "Do you mean _Yami?_ No way! I'm not putting _any _of these four near him--hell, we don't even know if he did this to them or not!"

"So it would be the perfect opportunity to go and see what he's up to," Pegasus said calmly, sipping on a second coffee he'd gotten from one of the working robots. "We can go after these little ones finish up their breakfasts and get cleaned up."

"_And _aftew I feed Howus!" Damon added happily through a mouthful of pancake.

Kaze groaned. He had _so _hoped the black-haired boy had forgotten that...oh well. It couldn't be helped.

"Okay, fine," the Blue Eyes agreed, sighing. "After we get these guys cleaned up, we'll go check on Horus and then go see what Yami's up to." He grimaced. What a wonderful morning schedule. And he had the feeling something big was supposed to happen today too, but he couldn't remember...

A half hour later, Damon and Kawari had finished eating and all four chibis had been cleaned up, and Kaze found himself walking down one of the back hallways that lead to the small aviary that had been provided for Horus. Grimacing, he wondered yet again how the hell he'd gotten himself into this mess. The fact that Pegasus was still being annoyingly cheerful wasn't helping him either, and he felt like glaring moodily at the other Millennium Item holder behind him (but that would mean turning around, and he really didn't have any energy for it after chasing the four former agents-turned-kids down the halls). 

"Well, here we are!" Pegasus announced cheerily as they entered the aviary a few minutes later. Damon bounced up and down in delight as he gazed around the room he was very familiar with, while the other three chibis just stood to the side, already growing bored. Kaze stepped into the aviary last, made a quick head count to make sure all four were there, and then closed the screened in door behind him. 

A sudden screech came from one of the taller perches, causing most heads to snap in that particular direction and Kawari to dive behind his chibi yami, startled. There sat a very impatient Horus, currently hooded and dancing back and forth from talon to talon. 

"_Howus!_" Damon yelped excitedly, skipping forward. He attempted to reach his falcon, but unfortunately the poor chibi was several heads short of the perch, and could not reach even on tiptoe. He tried to jump, missed by a long shot, and tumbled backwards, falling onto his butt and staring up at the perch in part confusion, part disappointment.

"Howus got tawwer," the little black-haired boy commented, staring up at his bird. 

"Weawly tall!" Saguru agreed, giggling slightly.

" 'n _big, _too," Kawari whined, peeking out from behind Kaeru.

Kaze had noticed this problem too, and grimaced slightly. While Horus was a suitable size for a full grown Damon, in his present state the bird was a _lot _larger in comparison and would probably topple the boy over if she tried to perch on his arm or shoulder. Not to mention the fact that it _was _a falcon, talons, beak and all, and could be rather dangerous for a chibi. 

"Er...Damon," Kaze said quickly, watching as the one eyed former falconer pulled himself to his feet, "maybe today wouldn't be a good day for _you _to feed Horus."

"But she's hungwey!" The boy protested, hands on hips, looking adorable in his defiant pose (though at the moment it was only annoying Kaze). 

"I didn't say we weren't going to _feed _her," Kaze countered, exasperated. "I just said you shouldn't do it."

Damon cocked his head, pondered this for a minute, and then asked, "Why?" The other chibis giggled.

"We're not starting that again," Kaze said forcefully, crossing his arms over his chest and attempting an athorative glare in the black haired boy's direction. However, while this effect worked quite well intimidating adults, it had absolutely no effect on the chibis, who only burst into more giggles. 

He sighed and tried speaking again. "Here, let me do it for you," he offered, taking a step forward towards the bird. Okay, he wasn't looking forward to this, but at least the chibi wouldn't be doing it, which was a small comfort. Very small.

But Damon protested again. "No! I want _Pegsy _to do it!" 

Kaze blinked. "Okay...why?"  
The former agent giggled. "'Cause he makes funny faces!"

The Blue Eyes raised an eyebrow at this but said nothing. Actually, come to think of it, he hadn't heard from Pegasus since the man had unnecessarily announced their arrival to the aviary. Turning around, he scanned the room for the Millennium Item owner. Ah, _there _he was.

Pegasus was in the corner the farthest from Horus, staring at the bird nervously and watching it as though it was going to try and assassinate him. Upon Damon's request, he said hastily, "Oh, no no, you want Kaze-boy to do it, don't you Damon?"

Damon shook his head. "NO! _You!_"

Pegasus frowned and said in an almost whining voice, "You _sure?_"

"Yes!" Damon was giggling loudly now.

"Fiiine..." the Eye owner said in a long drawn out sigh. Moving forward (veeeeery slowly, the writer wishes to add) he came up to the perch where the falcon was still dancing in impatient hunger. Reaching out, again very slowly, he unhooded the falcon, squeaking slightly when the bird shook its head once freed of the confining hood. 

"Okay....what now?" the white haired man asked nervously, never taking his eye from Horus.

"Food, silly Pegsy! Howus is _hungwey!_" Damon answered this question as if anyone should know it.

"Of course, _Pegsy,_" Kaze added dryly, emphasizing the chibi's name for the company owner, "how could you not have known that?"

Pegasus shot Kaze a look that plainly said "watch it our you'll be duel monsters food," but before he could come up with a witty comeback, Horus gave a small screech, stretching her wings out wide and flexing her talons impatiently. 

The result was a high, almost girly scream from the millionaire, who scuttled backwards, tripped, fell to the ground, and crawled over to the wall, yelling frantically, "Stop her! She's _attacking _me!"

Damon fell over laughing loudly, the other chibis (even Kawari) fell about in giggling fits, and even Kaze had to fight a smile from tugging at the corner of his lips. "She's not attackin' you, she's stretchin'!" Damon supplied between his fit of laughter where he was rolling on the ground.

"I don't care if she's stretching or playing cards, _I'm not going near her!_" Pegasus snapped, heading at a remarkable pace for the door. "I'm waiting over here," he added, giving his leader a glaring look and standing by the door.

Kaze nodded slightly, still busy with his internal battle of keeping himself from bursting out laughing, and Pegasus (having read the Blue Eye's mind) stood sullenly next to the door, glaring a hole in the floor.

In the end, Kaze had to do the actual feeding. Although he wasn't fond of the bird, he wasn't scared stiff by her, and he'd seen Damon feed the falcon when in his full grown form enough times to know what to do. It was a rather clumsy feeding, he had to admit, and Horus did _not _appear at all pleased. Kaze thought it was well worth it, however, when Pegasus screamed like a girl again and bolted out through the door when Horus struck her rat breakfast in midair rather messily with a triumphant screech--at least something amusing had come out of all of this.

After Horus had devoured her rat, Kaze had allowed Damon to pet her for a few minutes before having her rehooded and set back on one of her perches. The black haired boy seemed satisfied for the moment that his bird had been sufficiently taken care of, although he made Kaze promise that he could come back to see her several other times that day, so the Opposition leader shooed the four chibis out of the aviary (where a disgruntled Pegasus was waiting) and closed the door behind him.

"Okay," he said, sighing wearily, "that's one thing off the agenda. What's next?"  
"Visiting Yami," Pegasus snapped, a sharp tone in his voice--apparently he hadn't gotten over the whole Horus incident.

"'dun wanna visit 'ami," Kawari whined, hiding behind Kaeru again.

"We need to, Kawari," Kaze explained patiently. "You don't have to go in his room if you don't want to, though."

"'dun wanna," Kawari repeated dully, nodding in response to Kaze's question.

"Okay then," the Blue Eyes muttered, sighing. "Everybody ready? Let's go pay Yami Yugi a visit, then."

()()()()()

HCG: And so another chapter ends! Bwahahaha!

Kaze: Ugh. Well, at least I got to see Pegasus make a fool out of himself...

Review all!


	5. Nozomi Enters the Mix

WSJ: *laughing hysterically* I love it when ideas come to you in the middle of the night!!! 

Kaze: *blinks at the chapter* Well, at least it's not _me_ getting humiliated most of the time... 

WSJ: *grin* I know, Naosu's a little OOC, but he's really surprisingly hard to write for... 

HCG: *cheery* But it's well worth it, is it not? Naosu rocks!

Kaze: My head is hurting already just _thinking _of adding him to this mix…ugh…

Disclaimer: YGO does not belong to us. HCG owns the Negative Realm and its occupants. WSJ claims Damon and Horus, and Nozomi and Naosu are Ebony Kuroneko's. Understanding of this chapter might help if you've read _Tarnished Soul_, by Ebony Kuroneko. 

()()()()() 

Kaze sighed and rubbed at his eyes in frustration as he reached into his coat pocket, pulling out the key to Yami's prison (or rather, Nozomi's prison, as he'd taken to calling himself now). As soon as Kawari had figured out where they were going, he'd practically jumped into Pegasus's arms, hiding in the millionaire's hair and whimpering. Apparently, chibi-Kawari wasn't as good at hiding his fear of the pharaoh as grown-up Kawari was. Damon was hiding behind Saguru, who was hiding behind Kaeru, who was behind Kaze. Sighing and wondering if it was too late to send the chibis back to the rec room, Kaze unlocked the door and pushed it open. 

The room was dismal, as always, but there was one distinct difference. The short figure lounging on the bed wasn't Nozomi. Naosu sat up and waved. "Loffu, Kaze!" he said cheerfully, resting one hand absently on the gold Puzzle around his neck. "Mou hitori no boku felt you coming, and he thought it would be better if Naosu-" he stopped as Pegasus stepped inside with Kawari in his arms, the other chibis trailing restlessly after him. Once he saw that it _wasn't_ Nozomi sitting on the bed, Kawari squirmed until Pegasus let him down. 

"Loff..." Naosu said wonderingly, hopping off the bed to find that Kaeru was about his height, although the others were actually shorter (if, indeed, it was possible to be shorter than a Yugi). "Kaze, they're kawaii! Naosu didn't know you had children!" 

Kaze groaned and resisted the urge to face-palm himself as Pegasus snickered. Being around Naosu tended to be like being around another chibi. One who'd been given sugar. In large amounts. 

Saguru giggled. "Silly Nao! We's not Kaze's kids!" 

Naosu giggled as well, delighted with the new name of 'Nao'. Then he stopped, blinking at the chibi-agents. "Wait... You're Saguru, loff! And Kawari! You're my size now!" 

"Ding ding ding, I think he's got it." Kaze said sarcastically, crossing his arms over his chest. "Now could you please ask your yami what he did to my agents and how we can get them back to normal?" 

Naosu pouted slightly at Kaze suggesting that Nozomi had done this, but obediently cupped his hands around the Puzzle, closing his eyes and cocking his head to one side as he conversed with Nozomi. The chibis began to get bored, and Damon, Saguru, and Kaeru started up a game of leap-frog that took them three times around the small room before Naosu looked up again. Kawari just stayed by Kaze, keeping a firm grip on the Blue Eyes's torn coat. 

Suddenly Naosu's eyes flashed open, something Nozomi had said startling him into speaking out loud, and in the first person to boot. "Mou hitori no boku, I don't think-" The Puzzle began to glow before Naosu had finished his sentence, and a moment later a slightly smirking Nozomi was standing next to his hikari. 

"This is most amusing." he said, grinning at Kaze. "And besides Worthy Light, I mean them no harm. I need to see them to try and figure out what has done this to them because it _certainly_," he looked pointedly at Kaze. "Wasn't me. And they are just children," he concluded matter-of-factly. "What could they possibly-" 

And then things began to happen very fast. 

Upon seeing Nozomi appear, towering over him by almost two feet, Kawari screamed and dove behind Kaze, curling up in a ball and throwing his hands over his head like a disaster was about to strike. Kaeru growled at Nozomi and then leapt at him, head-butting the startled pharaoh to the ground before he could do anything. Naosu jumped away before they could land on him, stumbled, and fell into Saguru, both of them going down in a heap. Pegasus tensed and Kaze's hand darted inside his coat, grabbing for a knife as Nozomi tried to get Kaeru off him in a non-threatening manner. Damon, his green eye wide in fright, pointed a trembling finger at Nozomi and screamed a spell. Kaze shouted a warning, having no idea what Damon might have done, but by then it was too late. 

Time slowed down again. There was a sticky-sounding _thunk_, like a wet seed pod exploding, and instantly Nozomi and Kaeru were both tangled up in a thick, sticky substance that was half-way between rubber and bubble gum, and a sickly green in color. Damon sat down on the floor and began to cry, and Naosu, who couldn't help but giggle, ran over to comfort him. Kaze had already retrieved Kawari from behind his ankles and was cradling the bawling white-haired boy in his arms, trying to get the little swordless swordsman to calm down. 

Pegasus snickered then, and it spread. Naosu started giggling louder, and Kaze chuckled a little as he watched the pharaoh and tomb robber struggle against the enchanted goop. Nozomi gave Naosu a distressed look, which only made the Negative Yugi laugh harder. "Worthy Light..." he whined. Then he cursed as he tried to move his head and the stuff pulled at his hair. 

Apparently, this seemed like a good idea to Kaeru too, who began to recite a very colorful vocabulary ranging from Egyptian to modern Arabic to English and Japanese. Pegasus snorted, trying to hold in more laughter at the sound of so many curses coming from so small a mouth and at so high a pitch. Well, that was one thing at least. While they had the bodies of toddlers the agents obviously still had the minds of adults. At least that part of their minds, anyway. 

Kawari stopped crying, twisting around in Kaze's arms to look at Kaeru with wide eyes. "You stuck!" 

"No shit!" Kaeru yelled back, trying to jerk his arm free and only succeeding in falling over onto Nozomi. "Aibou! Quit laughing!" 

"I sorry!" Kawari giggled as Kaze let him down, his fear of Nozomi for the moment overpowered by the sheer hilarity of seeing his yami stuck to the floor by green goo. Saguru joined him, both of them laughing and pointing at Kaeru, who was growing increasingly distraught, which only made his curses become that much more colorful. 

Pegasus could stand it no longer as he sat down on Nozomi's bed, leaning against the wall as he howled in laughter. "I haven't seen anything _this_ funny since Kaze-boy got his boxers run up the flag pole!" he chortled, earning a pause and a curious glance from Nozomi. 

Kaze snorted, dipping his head to hide a cruel smile at Nozomi's predicament, when suddenly he realized that Damon was still howling. Worried, he kneeled down next to Naosu, who was trying without success to calm the little falconer down. "What's wrong Naosu?" 

Naosu shrugged helplessly, his eyebrows drawn together in worry as he petted Damon's hair and patted his back. "Naosu doesn't know! Damon hasn't stopped crying long enough to tell me!" 

Kaze picked up the one-eyed chibi, pulling him onto his lap. "Damon, what's wrong? Are you okay? He might have just used too much energy at once casting that spell," he said as an aside to Naosu, who nodded with wide eyes. 

"I di'nt mean t' hit Kaeru too!" Damon wailed, burying his face in Kaze's shoulder. "Jus' stupid Nozomi! Now Kaeru'll get eated too!" 

Naosu and Kaze exchanged wide-eyed glances, and Pegasus wasn't laughing anymore. "'Eated'?" Kaze echoed. "Damon, what do you mean?" 

"He summoned something!" Pegasus realized, franticly darting his remaining eye over the webbing that encased Kaeru and Nozomi, trying to find out what Damon may have brought out of another realm (not necessarily the Shadow Realm, Damon was known to summon creatures from other dimensions as well, most notably when he'd summoned a Chinese dragon for he and Saguru to escape on when a raid had once turned particularly nasty). "Something to eat Nozomi!" 

Naosu frowned. "Not loff! No eat mou hitori no boku!" 

Kaeru was beginning to panic, thrashing around in the webbing again. "Lemme out! Kaze, I want out!" 

"Damon, can you make it go away?" Kaze asked, shaking the chibi a little without meaning to. Damon looked up at him with a tearful eye and shook his head 'no'. "Too sleepy..." 

Nozomi screamed suddenly, a sound that was so unusual it made everyone stop and stare at him. The pharaoh had gone completely still, and the reason was very obvious. Climbing over his head was a long-legged, furry, fanged, probably poisonous... 

Saguru squealed and hid behind Kawari. 

"SPIDER!!!!!!!!!!" 

()()()()() 

WSJ: *snickers evilly* I couldn't help it. I just couldn't. ^^; Let it be known that I hate spiders more than anything else, and if I was in Nozomi's place right now I'd probably be screaming and running in circles, webbing or no webbing. ^^;;;; 

HCG: I, for one, do not blame you. Spiders are EVIL in physical form! Gah! *shudders*

Kaze…it's just an arachnid. What's so bad about it?

WSJ & HCG: *both glare at Kaze* 

Kaze: *sweatdrop* Ignore me…

God bless minna-san! 


	6. Spiders and Other Things

Small Troubles

by HCG and WSJ

HCG: @_@ Bleh. Took a while. Moving and computers be EVIL. WHY do you like computers so, Kaze?!

Kaze:....because....I've been raised with them since I was ten?

HCG:....That's not a good enough reason! >_<;;

Kaze: *siiiigh*

WSJ: It's because all computers are male, and Kaze's male. *nods sagely* Hmm... Except Kaze can multi-task as long as he has coffee... Does that mean he's _not_ male? X_X

Disclaimer: We don't own Yu-Gi-Oh. Too bad, eh, or it'd probably be a lot more interesting with tons more Ryou torture, isn't that so? The Negative Realm, its occupants, and related theories and ideas belong to High Crystal Guardian. Damon and Horus belong to Wingleader Sora Jade. NR Yugi/Naosu's particular personality here is Ebony Kuroneko's.

Oh, and a side note from HCG: some of you seem to be getting confused, and I know Ebony made a note about this in _her _fic, but I'll clear it up here for those of you who _don't _know. The Negative Realm Yugi belongs to HCG, but this _particular _personality/version of him, which goes by 'Naosu,' belongs to Ebony--it's _her _take on NR Yugi and _does not _belong to HCG. Get it? Got it? Good. Roll fic!

WSJ: And yes, we've broken the timeline!!! *CACKLES*

()()()()()

"SPIDER!!!!!!!!!!"

The mixture of surprised, terrified, and just plain grossed-out screams hit a high pitch and made the poor little chibi Damon wail even louder and cling to Kaze's sleeve, making the trench coat fabric grow damp. Kawari looked partly grossed out, but mostly scared to death for his yami, who was struggling wildly within feet of the spider. Saguru was cowering behind the white-haired three (and a _half_) year old, displaying a surprising case of arachnophobia that had been rather unexpected. Naosu's naturally wide eyes were even more naturally wide from worry for his own yami, and Pegasus just looked surprised at the whole situation, his one remaining eye blinking rapidly in disbelief.

And Kaze? Kaze was seriously wishing he'd had another cup of coffee while he'd had the chance, because he was fed up with dealing with this stuff, and was equally seriously considering demoting Pegasus several ranks for drinking the coffee that should have been _rightfully his_.

Nozomi, meanwhile, was trying to get a better look at the spider to see just _exactly _what was climbing all over his head while trying not to hyperventilate at the _thought_ of a giant spider climbing all over his head. He got his look as it moved a little, and soon wished he hadn't. The spider was _huge, much _larger than any spider, even a tarantula, could naturally grow to, and the same sickly green as the webbing, which they guessed was why they hadn't first noticed it was there. It was extremely hairy, with four big sets of glassy black eyes, and clicking mandibles, and (ignore the arachnophobic authoress(es) royally panicking at this point at having to describe this...just keep reading...*cough*OH DEAR GOD IT'S DISGUSTING! AAAGH! *cough*) a large, bulbous spider butt (excuse us...thorax...). The whole thing rested rather lazily on Nozomi's large mass of spiky hair, and then, equally lazily, it stretched out one long leg and placed it on Nozomi's forehead as it began to descend downward.

Nozomi, understandably, freaked.

"Oh, by Ra, it's on my face! It's gross! And hairy! And gross! Did I mention gross? Get it off! It's gross!"

"Okay, so it's gross!" Kaze snapped in irritation. "We heard you the _first _three times!" He watched as the spider placed a second leg on the yami's face, and thought vaguely that if the situation wasn't so perilous, with the risk of the two yamis getting eaten, it would have been damned funny to see the once-greatest-terror-of-Japan spazzing out over a larger-than-average, weird, green-colored spider. _Wish I'd thought of this a couple months ago._

"Is not loff!" Naosu piped up from the sidelines, watching his darker half's obvious distress with an unhappy look on his face. "Not loff! Make it leave mou hitori no boku alone!"

"'n Kay'u too!" Kawari added, determined to get his two cents in. "Dun want Kay'u to get eated too!"

"Er..." Kaze grimaced a little, not quite sure what to do about the situation, but knowing it needed a reaction, and _fast._ "Pegasus? Can you dispel it or something?"

"Noooo," Pegasus answered slowly, still blinking a little, as in disbelief. "Damon uses different magic. It isn't the same as Millennium Items." He shrugged.

"Er..." Kaze managed to get out again, a little annoyed. Damon being on their side, he'd never bothered to make sure his magic was in check, and was now severely regretting it.

"Hurry it up and make a decision, _fast!"_ Nozomi yelped--yes, folks, it is indeed possible for a Yami Yugi to yelp--he _yelped _quickly, attempting to twitch away from the green spider with very little success._ "_This Ra-damned thing is _gross!_ And it's gonna try and eat me!"

"Well, we can't get rid of it!" Kaze snapped, growing increasingly irritated by the situation. "What the hell do you _want _me to do?"

Despite the situation, Damon, Saguru, and Kawari all gasped in surprise. "Bad word, Kaze!" Saguru said reprovingly, giving him a look.

Kaze's jaw dropped slightly as he lost a hold on that perfect, unemotional Kaiba stare. "Nozomi and Kaeru are going to get eaten and you get mad because I said '_hell?_'"

"'said it again!" Saguru yipped angrily, glaring up at the Blue Eyes. "_Bad _Kaze!" And he gave the leading agent a little chibi punch as 'punishment.' Under normal circumstances Kaze would have barely felt it, but as it was he was unfortunate enough to get hit near the old wound on his bad leg, and he gave a startled 'eep' of surprised pain. "Ow! That hurt!"

"Then no bad words," Saguru ordered calmly, shaking a little finger at him.

Kaze's eyes twitched. "You're one bratty chibi. I think--"

"He_llo?!_" Nozomi interrupted, sounding panicked. "Kaze?! The spider?!"

"I just told you I can't get rid of--"

"Then kill it! Kill it kill it kill it _quick!_"

"Oh." Kaze blinked. "Yeah. Why didn't I think of that?" Still a little surprised with himself, he reached in his trench coat and pulled out one of his many throwing knives, taking careful aim at the spider atop Nozomi's head.

"WOAH!" The former pharaoh's eyes widened at the sight of the knife. "What do you think you're doing, trying to kill me?! If you miss I'll have a knife in my skull!"

"No," Kaze answered dryly, "I won't miss, and I'm trying to kill the spider, not you."

"You're not playing William Tell with my head!"

"I can't get close enough to kill it, all that green goop is there. Besides, I could always let the spider eat you, if you don't want me to use this knife of mine."

Nozomi's eye twitched, but the shifting spider legs seemed to change his mind. "Alright, alright, do it quick!"

Kaze held the blade between two fingers, took careful aim once more, and sent the blade spinning out, slicing clean into the spider and causing it to squeal in surprise (yup, folks, it turns out spiders can, indeed, squeal. Or this one can. Hey, it's a magic spider, right? It can do what it wants, right? It's special, right? Shutting up now...) and twitch backwards, legs wriggling. It turned and attempted to go for the smaller target, Kaeru, but another two well placed knives sent it flopping on top of Nozomi's head, legs twitching as it died and a disgusting, squishy green goo sprouting from the knife cuts and dripping all over the spirit's hair and head, flattening the spiky style and tingeing it green.

Nozomi was not amused.

Everybody else was, though.

The entire group in the room stared at the flat-haired, grossed out, annoyed looking former pharaoh, still entangled in green goo and now with _more _green goo dripping down his head, and a spider sitting like some sort of strange, hairy crown on top, and abruptly burst out laughing. The sight was just too priceless, once the grossness of the situation had been passed by, and every one of them thought it was hysterical.

Nozomi blinked his eyes amidst the goo and gave his giggling hikari an almost forlorn look (it shall be noted that this looks just as odd as a Yami Yugi yelping). "Worthy Light," he complained, "stop laughing and get me out of here!"

Now that he was assured his yami was safe, however, the Negative Yugi was having a blast; by now, he'd sat down in the middle of the floor to keep himself from falling over and was currently giggling his little heart out. "Naosu can't help it!" he managed to call through his laughter, "Mou hitori no boku look so _silly!_" The others appeared to agree, as all the chibis--even Kawari--were rolling on the ground and laughing. Well, Kaeru _would _have been, if he hadn't still been stuck in green, sticky spider web _also_.

Nozomi almost whined. "If I didn't think I somehow deserved this," he muttered, "I'd be _really _angry about now…" the others ignored him.

Once the laughter had died down and everything was calm--or as calm as it could get with two people trapped in a massive spider's nest--Kaze finally shook his head, sighed, and removed a few knives, beckoning Pegasus forward to have him help cut the two trapped ones out of the webbing. Kawari wanted to help free his yami, but Kaze refused to allow the chibi to use a knife, much to Kawari's displeasure.

"But I know how t'use _Gin Hewwi!_" the little chibi hikari complained, staring up at Kaze. "I kin use those toooooo!"

Kaze still said no.

Whereupon Kawari sat down in a huff and refused to speak to him again _ever _in his _whole life._

Cutting Kaeru and Nozomi out of their bindings was difficult, as the webbing refused to want to yield to the sharp edges of Kaze's knives, but they managed with only a little difficulty. Soon two yamis, trailing wisps of webbing in their hair and clothing and on their skin, were freed and standing in the middle of the room. This caused a whole new bout of giggles from Naosu and the chibis (except for Kawari, who was still throwing a tantrum over not being able to use a knife), which in turn caused Nozomi to look a little more sullen.

"This is _beyond _unfair," the Negative Yami muttered to himself. "I'm even behaving! I'm almost _sure _I don't deserve this!"

Pegasus shrugged. "You _did _start it," he couldn't help but point out.

"How did I start it? All I did was come out of my soul room!" Nozomi looked extremely irritated and attempted to pull some of the green goop out of his hair, where it was tangling his (*INSERT: GORGEOUS MYSTERIOUS AWESOME-LOOKING* *HCG is promptly thwacked by WSJ*) bangs, but he only succeeded in making it worse and hurting his skull. "That's it. I'm going back to sleep. Getting up in the morning should just _not _be allowed." He began to fade out, going to a more transparent, spiritual form before he disappeared completely.

But he didn't get the chance to leave, because Kaze leapt forward. "HOLD IT!" he called loudly. "We didn't even finish what we CAME here for!"

Nozomi, still transparent (and now without the goop and dead spider in his hair, since it had all fallen off when there was nothing physical for it to cling to anymore) paused and gave him a look. "I thought you wanted to see if I made them chibis. Well, I didn't. Satisfied?"

"Actually," Kaze answered, "we need you to tell Kaeru how to get back into his soul room. He…er…doesn't remember." The Opposition leader couldn't help but sweatdrop.

"_So?_" the five-year-old Kaeru growled, choosing this moment to enter the conversation. He glared up at the two towering over him, obviously not happy after his little spider ordeal. "Don't _hafta _go back, do I?"

Kaze gave an exasperated sigh. "You have to _try,_ at least," he answered. "At any rate, it will at least get all that…stuff…off you."

Kaeru stamped his feet. "_Fine _then. How?" He turned to stare _up _(yes, there's something we'd never thought a Bakura would do, stare UP at a Yami) at Nozomi and gave him a questioning look.

"Er…" Nozomi paused. Truth be told, he'd never really had to _think _about going to his soul room, so it was difficult to explain. "Try…thinking about the room. Do you remember what it looks like?"  
"Yeeeeees," the chibi thief answered, still looking up.

"Okay…er…just try thinking about it really, really hard." The former pharaoh couldn't help but realize how dumb that sounded, but he didn't really care. He just wanted to get some sleep. That, or some really, really strong coffee.

Kaze gave the Seto Kaiba equivalent of a person's jaw dropping, since Kaibas don't normally go around dropping their jaws on a regular basis--you know, that whole stony face, can't-show-any-emotions thing? Yeah, guess what, Kaze has that too. Go figure. Where were we? Oh yes. So Kaze gave the Kaiba equivalent of dropping one's jaw, which showed his extremely annoyed disbelief at the answer Nozomi had just given.

"That…was IT? 'Think about the room really really hard?' No magical tricks?"

Nozomi considered momentarily. "Yes, that does seem about it."

Kaze's eye twitched, and then he took a deep, steadying breath before speaking. "Then why the _hell _did we come down here in the first place?!" Whoops, the steadying breath didn't work so well.

The chibis gasped again. "_BAD WORD, Kaze!_"

The Blue Eyes looked irritated, but glanced over at them. "Sorry, sorry, I won't say it again. Promise."

Nozomi, meanwhile, just shrugged. "Why don't you ask _yourself _that question, since _I _didn't make the decision for you," he said, looking just as irritated that he had been woken up, annoyed, and nearly eaten _in the morning._

Kaze looked positively exasperated, but finally sighed. "Kaeru," he muttered, "just try what he said, okay?"

"'kay," the chibi yami finally agreed, nodding. He stood still for several moments, face scrunched up in concentration as he tried hard to…well…think of his soul room really, really hard. After a few moments, he vanished, reappearing another two minutes later…

As a now _clean, _but still obviously not adult, chibi.

"_Da-_" Kaze saw the tiny chibi glares swivel around to his direction, and hastily edited himself. "Darn. Why didn't it work?"

Nozomi snorted. "I don't know, and at this point I don't particularly care. If you will excuse me…" and he finished returning to his own soul room, transparent form winking out in a heartbeat.

Naosu made a face. "Mou hitori no boku grouchy in morning."

"No kidding," Kaze said dryly. He sighed.

Pegasus shrugged. "It must just be an extended spell," he offered. "Whoever or whatever made them like this, obviously they don't want them to change back immediately."

"_Wonderful,_" the Blue Eyes snapped, tapping his foot impatiently. "Well, let's go. Maybe somebody else might have a clue on what's going on. Come on, guys," he added, calling to the chibis and motioning to the door. "We're leaving."

Saguru skipped forward towards the door cheerfully, now pleased that the big scary spider was no longer there, while Damon, still sniffling a little but quickly recovering, trotted after him. Kawari had run to meet his yami when he had reappeared, and now the two left last, Kaeru acting like some sort of guard around his younger 'charge.' Pegasus hastily went after them to make sure they didn't cause havoc, while Kaze turned back to Naosu.

"Sorry about all of _that,_" he said, indicating the mess of goop. "I'll send somebody down to get it cleaned up."

"Is no problem, Kaze-san," Naosu said, looking cheerful. "Can Nasou come too? Mebbe Nasou can help!"

"Er…I guess." _You're probably the only one who can get hyper enough to communicate with those chibis, anyway, _Kaze couldn't help but silently add in his mind.

"Yay loff!" Naosu practically bounced excitedly, and paused only momentarily to place his Puzzle on the bed, since Nozomi would probably not appreciate being dragged around to baby-sit several chibis, particularly after the latest ordeal.

"Er...right. Whatever you say."

And so they were off. Kaze had no idea where he would take the chibis, but he _did _know he had to find _someplace _to keep them. On top of that, he now had somebody bouncy and hyperactive enough to take the place of _another _chibi as a new companion, and he had a feeling that things were going to only get _more _difficult now.

So they wandered, but not for long. The chibis had rapidly begun to get out of hand within only a few minutes; Kaze had been busy reprimanding Saguru for chasing Damon down the hall, and Naosu was busy trying to entertain chibi-Kawari, which didn't work so well thanks to the very limited chibi-attention span the white-haired kid now had. Kaeru, meanwhile, was claiming Pegasus' attention for scribbling random, possibly Kurueruna-based hieroglyphics on the walls with a marker he'd found somewhere, completely ignoring the American as he was told, several times, to stop.

Which was why Kaze was _extremely _annoyed when Roland decided to show up right about then.

"Sir!" the man had called loudly, running down the hall towards where the group of seven was currently standing, "sir, I thought you'd--" he paused. "Er…what's going on?" he asked slowly, eyes sweeping the hall and staring at the chibis.

"If you ask that again," Kaze snapped, quickly losing his patience, "I'm going to fire you."

"Yessir!" Roland answered hastily. "Er, it's just that, I'd thought you'd left already. I had your transport set up and everything."

Kaze raised an eyebrow. "What was that?"

"You know, your meeting with the Ishtars. They're arriving at our air base soon, and you said you wanted to go meet them, remember? They're here for their meeting…the one you have with them every three months."

Kaze swore, causing the chibis (excluding Kaeru) to gasp once again, but he ignored them for the moment. "WHAT?!" he hissed. "That was _today?!_" _Now _he remembered what had been gnawing at his mind. A meeting with the Ishtars, and he had totally forgotten about it due to this whole chibi business!

"Yes, sir," Roland yipped. "Er, your transport's ready, I'm sure you can still make it…um…"

"Are we gonna see Mawik?" Saguru asked excitedly, bouncing.

"And Isis!" Damon continued, looking up at Kaze with his good eye, which was filled with excitement.

"'n Rashid!" Kawari finished, naming the last of the group.

Kaze looked exasperated. "_I_ am, _you _are not," he stated firmly, unwilling to let chibis leave the base.

"NO!" all of them yelled, throwing tantrums at the same time. "WANNA SEE MAWIK! WANNA SEE ISIS 'N RASHID!"

Pegasus and Naosu covered their ears, and after several seconds the American called over the noise. "I suppose there's no harm in bringing them," he said loudly. "It is a secure area!"

Kaze gave him a flat look. "You aren't serious."

The chibis had heard, too. "YAY! Pegsy's not a meanie-head!" Saguru cheered, glomping onto the Eye owner's leg. Damon followed, clinging to the other leg, and Kawari, left without a leg of his own to latch too, just bounced up and down instead, chanting the Ishtars' names repeatedly. Even Kaeru had lost interest in his doodles by this time and was watching the proceeds, though he didn't seem _as _eager to see the Ishtars as the others did.

Kaze looked exasperated, but finally nodded. "Alright," he said, sighing a little. "Fine. Fine. It is safe enough…okay, guys, you can visit Malik and the others."

The chibis all squealed, and Kaze had a vague impression that things had just gotten ten times worse.

()()()()()

HCG: Oh. My. God. I actually _finished _writing this.

Kaze: *dryly* What a surprise.

HCG: ^^ YAY! Now MALIK'S entered the mix!

Kaze: Yay. -_-; I think my headache's about to get worse.

WSJ: *grins* Oh come _on_, it's Malik! Hmm... Speaking of... why do I get to write him? @_@ You don't even have a personality for him yet, HCG! *dies a twitchy death*

Review, folks! ^_~


	7. No, not another one!

Small Troubles

by WSJ & HCG

WSJ: ; Well, it took awhile, but here it is.

Kaze: *stares* You're all trying to kill me, aren't you?

WSJ: Of course not! ...We just love you a little too much.

Kaze: *dryly* And of course authoresses express their love through torture. Joy.

HCG: It's the only way we know how to express our love for you super-cool characters.

WSJ: *giggles* I always felt sorry for poor Roland... Kaiba (in any realm) is always so mean to him... XD

HCG: I have a feeling Kaze'd be relatively nice normally, Roland just decided to pop in on a REALLY BAAAAAD day for poor poor Kaze. XD.

Kaze: � I'm beginning to hate you both.

Disclaimer: YGO belongs to Kazuki Takahashi. HCG owns the Negative Realm and all related theories. Damon and Horus belong to WSJ, and Naosu's particular personality belongs to Ebony Kuroneko. Loff!

()()()()()

And so it was that Kaze and Pegasus had to herd four chibis (and one Naosu) through the base to the carport. Needless to say, it took awhile. Saguru had to go to the bathroom again, Naosu had to chase Kaeru out of a heating duct (indeed, Naosu was the only one small enough _to _chase him out), and Damon started whining that he never left the base without Horus. It took nearly ten minutes for Kaze and Pegasus to convince him that he'd just have to leave the bird behind this time. In the end, Kaze had to pick him up and carry him kicking and screaming toward the garage.

When they finally reached it, they found a sheepish looking Roland. "I'm sorry sir; but there's going to be a small delay... The transport we had arranged is, um... too small for all of you. We're in the process of finding a larger one as we speak."

Kaze just sighed, tucking Damon under one arm. "Fine, fine..."

They didn't have to wait long. Within a few minutes a larger vehicle rolled in, driven by a random agent. The chibis started squealing and bouncing as soon as they saw it, and Pegasus doubled over in laughter. Kaze just tried very hard not to swear.

In the True Realm there is a movie known as Daddy Daycare. It was never made in the Negative Realm, which is a shame, because what rolled in those doors would have been perfect for the movie. It was a mini-van, painted in the most bizarre patchwork of colors imaginable. Smack on both sides and the hood was the Kaiba Corporation logo in bright pink. Very noticeable.

Kaze's eye began twitching as the van pulled to a stop and all the chibis started hopping up and down and yelling happily. Damon seemed to have quite forgotten about Horus, and he was wiggling rather violently, so Kaze sighed and let him down.

Leaving Pegasus to keep an eye on the children, Kaze turned toward Roland. "What the hell is that?!" Since the chibis were currently occupied with worshipping the van, they didn't comment on his use of language. This time.

Roland coughed slightly. "It's the mini-van from our daycare center."

"Daycare center?! We have a _daycare center?!?_"

"Yes sir, for the workers' children. And now for those four monsters." He pointed at the chibis, who were now scrambling all over the inside of the van, yelling at each other as they tried to claim seats. Pegasus was sitting on his butt on the ground, still laughing himself sick. "It's the only thing big enough to get you all to the airport."

Kaze sighed, wondering if it was too late to wave the white flag. No! What was he thinking? He couldn't do that! But with the chibis it was awful tempting... "Give me those keys before I decide to fire you anyway."

"Yessir!" Roland handed over a pair of keys dangling from a Teletubbies keychain. "And you don't leave milk in the car with the windows rolled up, don't park in the sun or the seats will get too hot, and no juice unless it's in a sippy cup."

"....What?" Kaze asked, still staring at the keychain in distaste.

Roland cleared his throat, aware his job was on the line. And probably life too, if Kaze got mad enough. "Er... Sorry sir, compulsory speech."

"...Right. What's this?" Kaze shook the keychain, and it squeaked menacingly.

"....It came with the van."

"........Riiiight. I'm just going to leave now. And you'd better pray I'm in a better mood when I get back."

Roland gulped. "Yessir."

Still twitching slightly, Kaze turned away from his underling and started toward the van, smacking Pegasus on the back of the head on the way past. "Come on Crawford, let's get this over with." he growled.

Still snickering and not a bit intimidated, Pegasus pulled himself to his feet and went after his fearless leader.

Thankfully the van was already equipped with chibi-sized car seats, so Kaze didn't have to try and hunt some up (or more likely, send Roland to hunt some up). Despite all their stocks of food, weapons, and other supplies, it was doubtful that car seats were something even the Opposition would have. But even so, they were running into problems. By the time Kaze and Pegasus reached the van, a merry game of musical chairs had broken out.

"I wanna sit next ta Ka'wi!" Damon screeched, trying to shove Saguru out of one of the middle car seats.

"No!" Saguru yelled back, sticking out his tongue at the other toddler. "I is already sittin' here!"

Damon huffed, puffing out his cheeks in indignation. Naosu, who was trying to help said Kawari in question buckle up and keep from giggling at the same time, was no help at all. Before anyone else could intervene, Damon had scowled, pointed one chubby finger at Saguru, and chanted something in a language that sounded vaguely like Hebrew, but probably wasn't.

Kaze groaned as he saw the sparks fly (literally!) and somehow managed to resist the urge to bang his head against something hard until the whole world went away. He settled for eyeing his suddenly motionless chibi-second, instead. "Damon, what did you do to Saguru?"

Damon gave Kaze his best chibi-eyes, but the effect was ruined slightly by the fact that Damon only had one eye to beg with. "Nothin'."

"Nothing my left foot..." Kaze muttered, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Saguru, please tell me you're okay..."

Saguru frowned, apparently thinking about it. Then he smiled, nodded, opened his mouth... and spoke in the same language that Damon had been chanting in. He frowned, and tried again, to the same result. Damon burst into hysterical giggles, and Kaze sighed.

"All right, enough," the Blue Eyes said, crawling into the van so he was kneeling in front of Damon. "What language is that?"

"Phoenician," Damon said, grinning wider than a Cheshire cat. "Ancient Phoenician."

Kaze groaned softly, followed by another sigh. Damon knew about five or six dead languages, because the chants for his spells weren't always in Latin or Egyptian. Apparently, Phoenician was yet another he knew, or at least knew well enough to curse someone else into speaking it. And of course, though everyone in the Opposition spoke ancient Egyptian, and quite a few of them knew Latin or Greek to boot, it was doubtful that anyone but the falconer in front of him would speak Phoenician. "Can you please fix it, Damon?"

Damon pouted slightly, sticking out his lower lip. "Well... You did ask nicely, Kaze-kun, so... Onwy if he lets me sit by Ka'wi!"

From his place in the car seat, Saguru glared and said a very emphatic form of the Phoenician word for 'no'. Or at least that's what Kaze assumed it was, since Damon got even more pouty directly after Saguru said it. "Fine! Then I'm never ever _ever_ gonna remove the cuwse! 'Guru can speak Phoenician for_ever_!" Turning up his little nose in what was unmistakably a pout, Damon headed for the back seat and climbed into the car seat beside Kaeru (who didn't appear to have noticed or cared about the fight at all), still in a huff.

Saguru's eyes got big at that, and he rambled of a stream of the dead language, which only made Damon start laughing. The blond chibi sniffed slightly and spoke something with a question mark at the end. Kaze sighed, pretty sure he knew what Saguru was getting at. "No Saguru, we won't let you stay like that forever. We'll find a way to make Damon lift the curse, all right?" Saguru cheered up and nodded, while from behind him Damon added another 'Never EVER'.

"Fine. Are we ready to go?" Kaze asked, pinching the bridge of his nose. He really needed an aspirin. Or coffee. Damn that Pegasus!

"All ready Kaze-san!" Naosu chirped from the back. He was strapped in on Kaeru's other side, not in a car seat.

"Good." Kaze closed the sliding door and walked around to get into the driver's seat, waiting until Pegasus got in next to him before he started up the engine and pulled out of the carport and onto the open road.

Of course, from there things only got worse.

They'd barely left the compound when Kawari spoke up from behind Pegasus. "Kaze, put on some moosic!"

"Yeah!" Damon chimed in, bouncing up and down in his car seat. "Somethin' Broadway!"

Kawari snorted, wrinkling his nose as he twisted around to stare at the little falconer. "Eww, no! Rock'n'roll!"

"Heavy metal," Kaeru spoke up, not seeming to really care, but wanting to put his two cents in anyway.

Saguru said something, and Damon wrinkled his nose. "Noo, not Celtic! Broadway!"

"Pop?" Naosu suggested.

"You could always turn on something classical." Pegasus commented, flipping his hair over his shoulder.

"NOOOO!" Three chibis hollered at once, and Kaze growled softly, reaching over to let his fingers hover over the radio dial. "The first station that comes on is the one we'll listen to, and I want no arguing, is that understood?" There were heavy sighs and muttered agreements, and Kaze flipped on the radio, settling back into the driver's seat and hoping that this would shut them all up.

Kaeru let out a soft whining sound at the music that drifted over the speakers, and Naosu wrinkled his nose. Damon groaned, and Kawari pouted, obviously wanting to contest the choice. Saguru clamped his hands over his ears, and Pegasus sighed. Kaze just wished he hadn't been quite so absolute in his "one station only" rule. Fighting chibis were better than this. Probably easier to listen to, too.

"What is it?" Kawari ventured after a moment.

"I believe it is bluegrass," Pegasus said with another sigh. "American bluegrass."

"...Ew." Kawari's statement seemed to sum up the feelings of all the chibis.

Unfortunately, due to their oh-so-short attention spans, the chibis soon lost interest in the bad music and looked around for something to do.

"Are we there yet?"

Kaze grit his teeth. "No."

"Oh... How about now?"

"No."

"......Now?"

"No."

"Okay..."

But of course by now the other chibis were beginning to get into the game.

"Kaze, are we there yet?"

"No."

"*random Phoenician*"

"No."

"There yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No!"

Naosu giggled, amused. "Now, loff?"

"NO!" Kaze scowled. "Don't make me pull this car over!"

"Eh, technically it's a van..." Pegasus pointed out, staring out the window.

Kaze gave an annoyed sigh. "Don't you start too!"

Pegasus grinned, carefully making sure that Kaze didn't see it. "Oh, but it's so fun Kaze-boy."

For a few moments, peace reigned in the car... van. Then:

"Kaze, Saguru won't quit pokin' me!" Kawari whined.

"Saguru, stop poking Kawari." Kaze repeated dutifully, squinting at the road in front of him. When did the drive to the airport get so long?

"Nooooo!" came the ancient reply, along with "Saguru, quit it!" in Japanese.

"Stop messin wif my aibou." Kaeru said in his most menacing (and squeaky) chibi voice, crossing his arms and glaring at the blond second. Saguru gulped, but like any child, he couldn't resist trying it just once more... and suddenly found Kawari holding onto his wrist very firmly with his teeth.

Saguru howled, and Kaeru grinned. "That's showin' 'im, 'wari!"

Pegasus dared to turn around. "Kawari! Let go of Saguru this instant. No more biting."

"He started it..." Kawari pouted after he'd released the other boy.

Pegasus just sighed. "Let me see, Saguru... That's not so bad, Kawari didn't even break the skin. You won't have to get a rabies shot after all." He chuckled at his own joke, until Kawari kicked him in the back of his seat. "Hey! Kawari!" The little swordsman just stuck his tongue out, and Pegasus snorted. "Jeez, I never knew you were such a brat..." That only earned him another kick.

All Kaze could do was ignore them and pray they got to the airport soon.

"Are we there yet?"

Miraculously, they all survived the trip to the airport, and they arrived just as the Ishtars' plane was coming in for its final approach. By the time it had taxied to a stop and stairs were put in place, Kaze, Pegasus, Naosu, and the chibis were all waiting anxiously on the tarmac. As soon as the plane's door opened, the chibis had to be restrained from dashing up the stairs. Thankfully, the adults had more hands than the chibis had collars.

"Be patient," Kaze grunted, trying to hold on to both Saguru and Kawari at once. "They'll be here in just a moment.

His words turned out to be prophetic, since just as he said them Rashid Ishtar appeared in the doorway, a strange hint of mischief in his eyes. It disappeared entirely, however, when he laid eyes on the chibis. In fact, his jaw just about dropped (except that he is Rashid Ishtar, and therefore cannot change expression). For a few precious moments he looked like a gaping fish, and then he seemed to compose himself, the hint of humor returning to his expression. He even smirked a little. "It seems we are not the only ones with problems."

Kaze gave him a deadpan stare, a cold knot beginning to form in the pit of his stomach. "Rashid. What. The. Hell. Do you mean?" he asked, his voice dangerously low. Calmly, he ignored Saguru's gasp (once again) from his use of language.

Rashid coughed, sweatdropping slightly. "Well..."

"Oniisaaaaan!" came a slightly frantic voice from inside the plane. Rashid stepped aside and a moment later Malik Ishtar appeared, holding a very chibi Isis Ishtar at arm's length. "Do something, it smells!" Malik paused then, and took in the group on the tarmac. His eye twitched slightly. "Oh great..."

Kaze groaned and put a hand over his eyes. "My thoughts exactly..."

()()()()()

Kaze: *eye twitch*

HCG: How'dya like that? XD

Kaze: You. Made. ANOTHER ONE?!

HCG: Hey, 'SJ did it, not me!

Kaze: And you agreed to it. ;; You really _are _trying to kill me!

WSJ: *giggles and hugs him* Reviews minna!!!!

God bless minna-san!


End file.
